Informal Economy

Informal sector workers in Vanuatu to have a voice

An initiative led by the Vanuatu Association of Public Employees Trade Union (VAPSE) and the Vanuatu National Workers Union (VNWU), aims to formalise existing informal sector associations, particularly those in the creative and agriculture sectors, on Santo and the Northern Provinces of Vanuatu.

News | 22 July 2021
Contact(s): bernard@ilo.org
Long time unionist Mr Ephraim Kalsakau leads Vanuatu workers on Labour Day 2021 March in Santo, Vanuatu
Since Labour Day on 1st May 2021, the island of Santo in Vanuatu has seen an increase in union activity. The largest island, Santo is part of SANMA province that has the second largest population 61,458 (Census, 2020) and is an important trading and tourism hub. It is one of many islands in the archipelago country, once frequented by cruise ships that supported the livelihoods of many informal sector workers, particularly those in the creative and agriculture sectors.

In keeping with the momentum of union activities, a concerted effort to provide affected informal sector workers with a voice and platform to engage in national COVID-19 recovery policies has commenced. Led by the Vanuatu Association of Public Employees Trade Union (VAPSE) and the Vanuatu National Workers Union (VNWU), the aim is to formalise existing informal sector associations, particularly those in the creative and agriculture sectors, on Santo and the Northern Provinces of Vanuatu.

“On 1st July we signed a contract with the ILO that will allow us to implement activities such as advocacy, training and developing COVID-19 policy briefs for the informal sector”, emphasized Dr Basil
Leodoro and Mr Gremson Valua representing VAPSE and VNWU respectively.

This organizing effort supports and contributes to government and national policies such as the Vanuatu National Sustainable Development Plan (2017-30), Decentralization Policy (2017-27) and the Vanuatu Recovery (COVID-19 + TC Harold) Strategy 2020-23.

In 2020, the ILO supported the Vanuatu Council of Trades Unions (VCT) to undertake a Rapid Assessment on the impact of COVID-19 on employment and workers. The report identified that of 84,859 employed persons in the country, 56,806 are informally employed (or 66.9 percent).

Informal employment among women is higher than that of males. Out of 38,223 employed women, 68.7 percent are in informal employment (or 26,242 persons), compared to 65.5 percent of men. Also, informal employment is the lowest among the age group 25-64 (64.5 percent), followed by youth (75.9 percent) and age group 65 and above (83.8 percent). Based on the findings of the rapid assessment, a strong recommendation by the unions was to support and organise the informal sector.

This initiative follows the successful organizing effort by the Public Service Association (PSA) in Tonga where 7 informal sector creative and agriculture associations have been established; COVID-19 recovery challenges of 2,000 members presented to the government; and 1,045 members supported to apply for government’s COVID-19 grant.

We are very excited to provide technical assistance through the Project in full collaboration of the ILO Worker Bureau, also known as ACTRAV, to help the transition of workers from informality to formality. The Pacific has an informal economy that is large in its scope and magnitude and requires a greater and innovative engagement of the national unions in support of an engaged transition towards more sustainable development objectives at the national levels”, said Mr Ravindra Samithadasa, the ILO’s Specialist for Workers Activities. He further added that since February, the ILO has hosted a series of webinars to build capacities of Pacific unions on strategies for organizing the informal economy. “We have shared good practices and experiences from the Philippines union movement and ofcourse recently the experiences from Tonga as a means of innovative approaches in reaching out to the informal economy”, highlighted Mr Samithadasa.